A Tour in New Zealand.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 968, 10 August 1881, Page 3

A Tour in New Zealand.

No. 111. —From Dunedin to Oama.ru and Timaru. From the Melbourne Leader]. It is difficult to generalise in dealing with New Zealand affairs. Each of r the old provinces has a distinctive character, so that what is true of one may not be true of the others. The Colony from north to south includes many degrees of latitude, giving difference of climate, and various circumstances, such as the manner in which the provinces were founded, have produced striking features in the social condition of the people. This difference in the characteristics of the country and the people adds very much to the pleasure of travelling from one part of the Colony to another, but of course increases the difficulty of giving general description of one’s experiences. It is, therefore, necessary to deal with what is seen uporl each of the journey, remembering that for instance the restless enterprise of Dunedin is not characteristic of Wellington and Auckland, and that the Scotch features of the same city are not observable in the essentially English province of Canterbury. In Christchurch one is continually reminded of the Litany, but in Otago of the Shorter Catechism. I was a gpod deal puzzled about the religious condition of the Dunedin people. Taking one set of evidences, I it appeared that religious subjects remore attention than m most parts of Australia, and judging from other indications, the reverse seemed to be the case. I saw numerous fine churches and heard theological sub-

jects frequently discussed, while there were numerous placards and notice boards giving invitations to religious services, which led me to suppose that the evangelical spirit was in an active state. But I also found that freethought associations occupied a more prominent position than they do in Australia. I don’t know if heterodoxy has more adherents in Dunedin than Melbourne in proportion to the population, and I don’t think it has, but it seemed to be m a more active condition. Free-thought meetings were frequent, and the speeches delivered at them were reported at considerable length in the daily papers. While I was in Dunedin a meeting presided over by an ex-Minister of the Crown was held by the Free-thought Associa-

tion to commemorate the birth of Tom Pain, and steps were being taken by the same association to obtain the privilege of instructing public school children in the tenets of their creed, whatever that may be. The zeal of these unbelievers is sufficiently strong to induce them to employ a missionary for the conversion of the perishing orthodox, the missionary being a wellknown individual who some years ago made an ineffectual, though long-con-tinued, attempt to “establish a cause” in Melbourne.

Secular education has not been long introduced into the Colony, and it is yet thought by some that-the local boards have the power of authorising the reading ofithe Bible in the schools. I believe there are no grounds for this belief, but it is so far from being settled in the minds of the people that the school board elections are energetically contested by the Bible-read-ing and non-Bible-reading parties. The zeal of the free-thinkers is clearly manifested in these contests, somewhat to the annoyance both of the Bible-in-schools party and the friends of secular instruction. The Dunedin Board gave their consent to a request from a certain church to give religious instruc-

tion in a school during certain hours of the Sunday, and this brought the irrepressible “ association ” to the front with a request for permission to give instruction during other hours of the day. The Board sent a reply asking the association if they proposed to teach the existence of a Supreme Being, and “ what kind of a Supreme Being” they believed in. A member of the association told me they had framed an answer that would completely annihilate the Board. I did not wait long enough to hear the result. Tea meetings and other church meetings are fully reported in the newspapers, and theatricals seemed to be well patronised. Betting appears to receive a large share of attention, and the sweep business flourishes. I notice in the leading morning paper nearly two columns of advertisements referring to betting, being invitations to invest in “ Oracles,” “ Seances,” and numerous other forms of sweep speculations. One man had some

time before worked the oracle so nicely that he had cleared for ’Frisco with some thousands of pounds of sweep money, but the business seemed to be as brisk as ever. I found betting very extensively patronised in all the towns of New Zealand, and if the people of the Colony are less addicted to it than Australians, they must do it more openly, for coming from the city which every year has the greatest racing festival in the southern hemisphere, I was, nevertheless, impressed at all parts of my journey with the indications of this form of gambling. There are two theatres in Dunedin, and I think there is always one of them open, the city being one of the best show places in the Colony. Those who do not attend the theatres should not take too much credit to themselves, for they are not subjected to the same temptations as they would be in Melbourne. Leading stars do not make a ’long stay in New Zealand towns, and the pieces are not put upon the stage in anything like the same style that is demanded in Melborne ; while the inside fittings of the theatres cannot in comparison be considered very attractive. (To be continued).